Elizabeth Walsh

Biography

Elizabeth Walsh’s research and teaching focus on the theory, history and practice of environmental justice, sustainable development, and regenerative design. Her research and practice has been action-oriented, place-based, transdisciplinary, and community-engaged. She collaborates with diverse partners who share her interest in co-creating ecologically sustainable and socially just communities, now and in the future. Dr. Walsh’s dissertation research investigated the potential of low-income home renovation programs to advance environmental justice in centrally located, gentrifying neighborhoods. As part of her research, she co-founded the Holly Neighbors Helping Neighbors program, a neighborhood, volunteer-based green home renovation program intended to reduce utility bills and ecological footprints while improving health and cultivating relationships among diverse neighbors. She has also served as the Vice Chair of the Austin Housing Repair Coalition, a group of more than a dozen public, non-profit, and private organizations dedicated to improving the health and environmental performance of low-income housing through home repair. Walsh was also the co-founder of The Festival Beach Food Forest project, a grassroots movement to create the first fence-less, edible forest garden in a public park in Austin (www.festivalbeach.org). Her earlier work in community-engaged green infrastructure planning included leadership of Boston’s first GIS-based street tree inventory.

Research Interest

Urban and Regional Planning